


Together

by LeChatRouge673



Series: Cat's Song [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 22:13:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14882186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeChatRouge673/pseuds/LeChatRouge673
Summary: Prompted fic for @alittlestarling. Takes places before the events of the main Songs storyline.





	Together

Loghain could count on one hand the number of people he had given his personal cell phone number to. He was not a particularly social person, and there were very, very few people he had any particular desire to have a conversation with outside of work. Because of this, he was more than a little surprised to receive a call from an unfamiliar number at nearly 10:00 at night. He seriously considered ignoring it, but something nagged at him to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Teyrn Mac Tir? It’s Cataline. Cataline Cousland, Thea’s cousin. Anora gave me your number. She said it would be better for me to try and get a hold of you rather than have her explain everything.”

“Cataline… Of course,” Loghain rubbed his forehead briefly, then alarm shot through his thoughts. “Is Theadosia alright? Has something happened?”

“I was rather hoping you might be able to help me answer that question,” Cat sighed on the other end of the line. “I don’t know how much she has told you about our friend Nathaniel.”

“Enough,” Loghain replied drily. “I know he walked out of your lives without so much as a word, leaving behind a very irate Theadosia.” He also knew that the eldest Howe son had left behind a broken-hearted Cataline, but he hardly felt it was his place to point that out.

“He… he had to leave,” Cataline protested, but he could hear the exhaustion in her voice. Loghain suspected this was something she had told herself far too many times. “But yes, the end result was the same: he left, and Thea was, _is_ , furious. Today is Nate’s birthday, and it’s always been a rough day for Thea. She won’t talk to me about it because for some reason she thinks that her pain would somehow undermine my own, and she is trying to protect me in her own stubborn way.” There was a pause, and then Cataline continued, choosing her words carefully. “I have not been able to reach her all day, and I’m worried. I hate to bother you this late in the evening, but I think I know where she might be. I just don’t know if she’ll talk to me.”

Loghain was quiet for a moment. “Cataline, I would be happy to go look for her, but what makes you think she’ll be willing to talk to me any more than you?”

“Because, Teyrn Mac Tir,” Cataline replied, “You are her friend. I think that, outside of myself, you are the only person she really trusts. If anyone can talk her down, it will be you.”

“Alright, Cataline.” He stood up and grabbed his jacket and his car keys. “Where do you think she is?”

* * *

Autumn had long since crept over the city, and the night air was frigid with the encroaching promises of winter. Loghain was more than a little alarmed that Theadosia had not only hiked all the way up here by herself, but that she was now alone in the cold and the dark. The hills surrounding the city were laced with hiking trails and viewpoints, but this one was particularly high in altitude and fairly remote. He parked his truck in the pullout for the overlook, relaxing slightly as he caught sight of an auburn-haired woman sitting on the bench nearby. Loghain approached slowly, not wanting to startle her.

“You really shouldn’t sneak up on me like that, you know,” came a tired, resigned voice from the bench. “Had it been anyone but you or Cataline, they would have been tumbling down the hill by now.”

He sat down beside her. She was wearing a sweatshirt but no coat, and even in the dark he could tell she was shivering. Loghain slipped out of his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. Theadosia said nothing, but accepted the gesture, which was a small victory in and of itself. “How did you know it was me and not some knife wielding maniac? You should not be up here alone in the dark, Theadosia.”

She laughed wryly. “Perhaps not. As to how I knew it was you? There are only a handful of people who would be worried enough to look, and only one who would have a pretty good guess as to where I was. Cat probably thinks, correctly, that I’m avoiding her, so she would have sent the only other person she thought might be able to talk me down, which is you.”

They sat in silence for a while, both staring out over the city lights. “I do not think I have ever been up here at night before,” Loghain finally spoke. “It’s rather beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Strictly speaking, I don’t think we’re supposed to be up here after dark,” Theadosia admitted. “But I come up here when I need to think, or to clear my head. When I lived in Highever, I used to run away out to the woods or the shore and stare up at the stars, but I’ve found this has its own appeal.” She gestured out towards the glittering sprawl of the capital.

Loghain stood, and offered her a hand. “Let me take you home, Theadosia. It is freezing out here and I will not be able to get any sleep tonight if I know I left you up here.”

She studied his hand for a moment, then accepted it. Loghain had to suppress the shiver that ran through his body at how cold she was. He helped her into the passenger seat of his truck, then began the drive back to her apartment in the city. When they arrived, he escorted her up in the elevator, but hesitated when they reached her front door.

“Come on in,” she invited with a toss of her head. “The least I can do for putting you through all this trouble is make you a drink.”

He followed her in and shut the door, but shook his head. “You, sit. I will make you something. How long were you sitting up there, anyways?”

She shrugged, kicking off her boots but keeping his jacket wrapped tightly around her body as she collapsed onto the sofa. “I am not certain. It takes me about two hours to hike up, and it was still daylight when I started. What time is it now?”

“Nearly midnight. Do you still keep the cocoa in the second cupboard, or was it above the stove?”

“Second cupboard. Are you seriously making me hot cocoa?” She gave him one of her impossibly rare smiles, the one that Loghain was still trying to figure out why it made his heart stutter.

“You were half frozen when I found you,” he chided her gently, handing her a mug before sitting down beside her with his own. “You need more than just a shot of whiskey, although I went ahead and threw that in too.”

Theadosia laughed. “You know me too well, Loghain.” She looked down at her mug, her brow furrowing slightly. “I am sorry you had to come track me down. I should not have run off like that, I just…”

“I know,” he stopped her before she could apologize further. “Theadosia, of course I came to find you.”

“I’m glad you did,” she admitted quietly. “It has been years, Loghain, and I am still so angry. And hurt. And angry that I’m hurting. But I can’t put that on Cat, because she has had to bear so much more. It’s not fair to her.”

“Theadosia, you are allowed to miss him too,” Loghain pointed out. “I am perhaps not the best person to try and advise you on feelings, but I do not believe there is a rule stating that your pain somehow invalidates Cataline’s, or vice versa.”

She sighed, setting her empty mug on the table. “I know that. Or at least, I know I _ought_ to know that. But you know how I am: it is hard for me to make myself vulnerable enough to talk to anyone, and it is made more problematic by the fact that I don’t want to make things worse for Cat.”

Loghain looked at her; could see the heartache and frustration dimming her storm blue eyes. He carefully reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against him with a soft exhale, her head nestling against his shoulder. “I know it is not the same, Theadosia,” he spoke softly against her hair, “And I know I cannot replace him, but I hope you know that you can always come to me with anything.”

“I know you aren’t trying to replace him,” Theadosia yawned. “It’s… it’s different with you, Loghain.”

He tried not to overanalyze the words. Theadosia was his friend; probably the best he had, and he cared about her deeply. The problem was that he was beginning to have difficulty sorting out just _how_ he cared about her, and he was afraid of what he might find if he did.

“You should probably get to bed,” he pointed out. “You are going to be exhausted tomorrow.”

“Inevitably,” she agreed. “I doubt I will get much sleep either way, but you are right: I should at least try.” Theadosia stood up and stretched before finally slipping out of his jacket and handing it back to him. “Thank you,” she smiled softly.

“Of course,” he nodded, then made took the empty mugs to the kitchen and rinsed them out in the sink before he headed towards the door.

“Loghain?”

He turned and looked back at her, and he could see she was fighting some sort of internal battle. Finally, she spoke. “Could you stay a little longer? I really don’t want to be alone right now.”

_Don’t do this. Don’t make this more complicated than it already is_.

Loghain set his jacket and keys back on the counter, nodding slowly. “Yes, Theadosia. I will stay.”

She offered him another tired smile before slipping into her bedroom. He could hear the sounds of running water and teeth being brushed, and when she re-emerged she had changed into a faded pair of well-worn flannel pajamas with penguins printed on them. Loghain couldn’t help a small smile of his own.

“Not a word, Mac Tir,” she warned before curling back up beside him on the couch and switching on the tv. She fit easily back against his body, and he wrapped his arm back around her, trying not to acknowledge how right it felt to have her there. “If you tell _anyone_ about my penguin pajamas _or_ my penchant for true crime shows I will never forgive you.”

“Not a word,” he promised.

They drifted to sleep at some point, together there on the couch. Despite the awkward angle in which he had fallen asleep, Loghain woke up the next morning feeling better rested than he had in years. Theadosia was still asleep, nestled in his arms, and he was almost reluctant to wake her.

_Oh no._

“Theadosia,” he prodded her gently, and her eyelashes fluttered open.

“Andraste’s blood.” she stood up faster than she should have, and he had to place a hand to her back to prevent her from falling. “What time is it? I am so sorry, Loghain, I didn’t mean to fall asleep and hold you hostage all night.”

“I told you I would stay,” he reassured her, and she studied him intently for a moment before leaning down and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Thank you,” she said simply. “It helped, having you here. More than I think I can explain, but perhaps you would let me at least buy you a cup of coffee?”

“Place up the street?” He suggested, and she nodded.

“Absolutely. Let me go throw on some real clothes and some mascara so I don’t terrify the populace and we can go.”

Loghain watched as she walked away, pretending he didn’t notice the sway of her hips, or the way her hair fell in auburn waves down her back, or the way she hummed under her breath without thinking about it, something she only did when she truly felt safe.

_Damn it._


End file.
